Over the past few weeks I’ve been recovering from a fairly significant operation that, while although appeared optional at the start of my diagnosis, became more and more necessary as 2020 has progressed. I have a bit of experience under the knife, having my knees operated on 3 times. I figured this time it would be similar and I’d have a smooth recovery path.

This one was different for me. As it’s been nearly 10 years since my previous operation, I’ve quickly realized that I’m unable to bounce-back as easily as I could for my previous operations. My recovery has slowed and the healing processes has been more challenging.

A few days after my operation, I realized this was going to be an uphill battle. I was naive to think that I’d be back on the exercise bike after a few days. I’m making progress, doing a “good enough” job of healing and realize that this will only be temporary. I have tried some light stretching each morning to give me a jolt of energy that helps kickstart my day.

If you’re facing an upcoming surgery or operation, or have recently had one and are “in the pit” as you go through your recovery, I’d like to offer the following advice:

• Be kind to yourself and practice self-compassion. Recovery can be a long road, and while you will be at a better place at some point, that road there can be tough. Understand that others go through similar experiences, and practice self-awareness on how you and your body are feeling.

• Get as much sleep as you possibly can. Studies have shown that sleep is the best way for your body to recover and heal.

• Try to keep your routine but also make sure that you give some space for your body to heal. Something that I’ve found works well is to keep my regular sleep pattern. I’m an early riser and I usually spend the first hour exercising, when I can’t do that I replace it with reading and meditation (and soon hopefully light stretching!).

• Be productive. I took the opportunity to for me to be on the couch & computer for many hours a day to clean up a a bunch of old documents from my computer, Dropbox and Google Drive. I find clearing “digital clutter” therapeutic and it gave me a sense of accomplishment.

Keep a positive attitude and you’ll find that your recovery process will be a bit more enjoyable, and likely will pass much more quickly!

I’ve been blessed to have been able to carve out 6 solid weeks away from work over the summer. The time has been truly life changing for me and has given me a ton of perspective on what my priorities should be. It hasn’t all been easy or rosy (ask my wife!), but it certainly has been fulfilling. I wanted to write a post summarizing some of my achievements, lessons learned and tips for others who may be taking deliberate time away from work to refocus.

Achievements

What did I do while I was away from work? Beyond spending gratuitous amounts of time with my kids, I did get quite a bit done:

• I completed the Science of Wellbeing course, and have a set of techniques to be happier, including practicing gratitude, savouring and thwarting my natural hedonic adaptation.

• I changed my relationship with my phone and technology, limiting the amount of apps that I access on a daily basis. I also committed to having a corporate phone for better work/life balance. Expect a future blog post on this topic!

• I did a 50km fundraiser bike ride, the longest ride since I’ve become a Dad. I also raised $500 for Chron’s and Colitis Canada in the process, which was graciously matched by my employer!

• I finished a handful of books, including The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown, the Working Dad’s Survival Guide by Scott Behson and Self Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind To Yourself by Kirstin Neff.

• I started listening to Podcasts on the daily! I will do a follow up post later this year with recommendations.

• Did a bunch of house projects, including learning how to snake a drain, remove a p-trap and how to dampen sounds of older, creaky stairs!

Lessons Learned

Thinking about taking some time away to do self-discovery? I’m hoping that my tips below will help you ensure you spend your time wisely.

Limit Your Goals

Heading into my sabbatical I had a number of goals (which I wrote about) that I was aiming to achieve during my time away. I knew that the time would go by quickly so I attempted to utilize some advice that I received when I was much younger and backpacking: pack your stuff well before your trip, remove half and pack again. In essence, don’t overbook yourself!

While I did apply this on the onset of my sabbatical, I quickly found that I was taking on too much and I needed to achieve less during my time away. As an example, I had signed up to do a handful of online product leadership courses and take a two day course on mental health leadership in the workplace. I opted to reprioritize both of these knowing that I can make space for them as I return to work, and focus instead on spending time with my kids and my family.

Stick to a Routine

Time off away from work means getting to sleep in to 9:00am each day and throwing your diet out the window, right?

While having some time to sleep in and get some rest is important, don’t let yourself stray from your daily routine too much. While I was at home I still managed to keep my regular morning “pre-work” routine. This gave me ample time to get stuff done in my day, as well as spend more time with my family. It also had the added benefit of making my transition back to work a bit easier!

Keep a Journal

I received some really good advice before my sabbatical started regarding how to utilize this time away. It’s a bit like a pendulum: spend too much time getting shit done and it’ll go by too fast, spend too much time doing nothing and you’ll come out of it feeling like it was a waste of your time.

I started a log of achievements and learnings that I had during my time away and it’s something that I’m planning on keeping going forward. It can be big wins (me competing a 50k bike ride!) or small ones as well (fixing something around the house). As the time went by very quickly, having a reference to go back to has made me even more grateful for my time away. And be sure to take lots of photos!

Get Out of Your Space

We purposely book-ended my time off with a few trips away. It was a great way to kickoff my sabbatical as a bit of a celebration, and end the sabbatical with some quality family time and an opportunity to explore outside of our city.

While I was at home it was important to get out of the house daily, particularly during the pandemic we are finding ourselves in.

Summary

I’ll be forever grateful for the time I was able to spend on myself and my family, particularly as I don’t know when I’ll be able to do something similar again. I’d encourage anyone who’s feeling burnout, wanting to find their purpose, or just looking to reconnect with what matters most to them to do something similar.

Living through a pandemic and quarantining at home does not mean your fitness and wellbeing goals need to be put on the back-burner. A recent surge in technology-fuelled initiatives to focus on heath and exercise at home has made “getting in shape” much more accessible.

I’ve previously posted on how to use data to drive self care, as well as general wellness tips during a pandemic. In this post I’d like to double-click into building a solid exercise routine that can help drive a foster of wellbeing in your life.

Make It Consistent, But Be Kind To Yourself

As with any routine, consistency will be key if you’d like to adapt more of an active lifestyle. I’m a big fan of trying to determine an activity window each day that you can fill with various exercises. For me, this is early in the morning between 5:45-7:00am. For others it might be during their lunch break, in the evening, whatever works for you! While having an active lifestyle encourages moving your body throughout the day, a dedicated window to get more rigorous activity in will assist in reaching your goals.

Consistency is important; I like to workout daily when I can. However be kind to yourself if you need to miss a day because, you know… life happens!

Bring Variety to Keep it Fresh

Don’t burn yourself out heading to the gym and doing bicep curls each day. Your muscles and body need time to adapt and rebuild. I appreciate having 5-6 activities that I can rotate through as part of my exercise regime and do them based on how I’m feeling each day or what the weather is like (such is life living in the Pacific Northwest). For example:

• I generally have two weight-lifting routines: legs + core and upper body + back. I try to space 2-3 days between each session (no repeats with the same muscle groups).

• Every 3-4 days I try to have have a full cardio workout, rotating between riding my bike, a 5km run, yoga or shooting some hoops on a nearby basketball court.

I find that for my exercise routines, I can go a month or so until I have a need to rotate new exercises. When my workouts are feeling stale I usually fire up a few Youtube videos for inspiration. I’ve really enjoyed some of the POPSUGAR Fitness videos as well as HASfit for new ideas.

Utilize Technology

There’s no shortage of hardware and software that can help you manage your exercise regimen. Picking yourself up a good fitness tracker is key to ensuring you have the data you need to track progress tune your workouts as needed. I’m partial to the Apple Watch but there are many other wearables out there.

I’ve previously advocated for the Strong app on iOS as a good way to track your weight lifting progress and reach your goals, and Strava is excellent for tracking your runs or rides and to engage with a larger community. Both apps also have Apple Watch support so you do not need to have your phone with you as you get exercise!

Lastly, if you are working at home then investing in a good screen set-up to follow along with YouTube workouts is beneficial. Picking up an AppleTV and using AirPlay has been a great setup for our home gym and to get that “fitness class feeling” in a safe manner.

Hopefully these tips will help you reach your exercise goals!